Fresno State Livestock Team places ninth at national finale

(November 17, 2015) -– The Fresno State Livestock Team completed its fall season with
an impressive ninth-place finish at the North American International Livestock Exposition
on November 17 in Louisville, Kentucky.

The seven-person also claimed four top-11 finishes in four other competitions against
the 33-team field in the categories for performance cattle (fifth), hogs (eighth),
reasons (10th) and cattle (11). Senior Danielle Budde was Fresno State’s top individual placer in the overall standings (16th) and also finished fourth in the sheep category.

“We were relatively inexperienced coming into the season,” said team coach Brad Mendes, “but our students worked hard together and achieved their goal of being top 10 at
nationals. They pushed each other all year long and were able to improve on an equally
noteworthy 11th-place finish last fall against the nation’s best teams.”

Earlier in the fall, the team competed in four events in October, and highlights from
each follow.

The team opened its season at the Western Fall Classic in Medford, Oregon and placed
second overall. Sophomore Amy Dierberger claimed high individual honors, and five
other team members also placed top 10 overall – sophomore Tino Rossi (third), seniors Cody McDougald (sixth) and Shannon Sumpter (seventh), Budde (ninth) and junior Hannah Price (10th).

After a sixth-place team finish at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, the squad placed
second overall at the Big Fresno Fair and was led by senior John Traini (first), Sumpter (third) and Budde (fourth).

At the American Royal event in Kansas City, the team placed seventh overall after
it finished top 10 in categories for sheep (third), goats (third), cattle (seventh),
hogs (ninth) and reasons (ninth). Price placed fifth among individuals in the sheep
and goat categories, and John finished 14th overall and three points shy of a top-10
finish.

Other members of the team that competed in fall included seniors Teighler Baugher, Jonathan Rodriguez and Paige Wysong.

Looking ahead, the squad will travel to four major events across the nation in the
spring – the Arizona National Livestock Show in Phoenix in December, National Western
Stock Show in Denver in January, San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo in February
and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in March.